Saturday, September 14, 2013

I am thrilled to be collaborating with the Design Company, Whigby, on a series of Missed Connections greeting cards. Whigby, in the design team's own words, "is all about pattern and paper; eccentricity and authenticity;
cheap cheeriness with a dash of cheekiness; lovely uncoated recycled
broadsheets and perfect printing. Whigby adds to the pleasure of giving
and receiving. Whigby is about concealment and revealment. Whigby is
crisp, tailored, torn and tattered. Whigby is memorable, forgettable,
timeless and ephemeral. Whigby!
You can find the cards by clicking the image above, and find out more about Whigby here.

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Since this blog began four years ago, I have sent prints of these Missed Connections drawings all over the world, to Brazil and Israel, Greece and Argentina, Zimbabwe, Australia, Iceland... but occasionally I receive something like this from a recipient: Jessica gave this print to her husband on their wedding day. I know, it's impossible not to go "Awww".
Congratulations to the happy couple... I'm so glad they found each other.

Friday, April 26, 2013

I have been on the road a bit lately. I visited the Gates Foundation in Seattle to open the exhibit, Let Every Child Have a Name, and was at the Western Washington SCBWI conference in Redmond to talk to - and draw with - children's book authors and illustrators, and to the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, to speak about measles during World Immunization Week. The first day home I visited the Berkeley Carroll School in Brooklyn and shared pictures and stories with first, second and third graders.
I have been fed and feted, seen such sights as the gum wall in Seattle and the Emergency Control Room at the CDC, spent time with esteemed Lions and Mac Barnett, and admired the drawings of artists aged 5 to... well... it wouldn't have been polite to ask.

And
now, tomorrow I am off to India. My daughter, Olive and I will be
accompanying the Measles and Rubella Initiative and Unicef on a mission
to Uttar Pradesh to observe routine immunizations.
I have never been to India, but have wanted to go for ever. Mark Twain called it,India! the land of dreams and romance, of fabulous wealth and
fabulous poverty, of splendor and rags, of palaces and hovels, of famine
and pestilence, of genii and giants and Aladdin lamps, of tigers and
elephants, the cobra and the jungle, the country of a hundred nations
and a hundred tongues, of a thousand religions and two million gods,
cradle of the human race, birthplace of human speech, mother of history,
grandmother of legend, great-grandmother of tradition... the one land that all men
desire to see, and having seen once, by even a glimpse, would not give
that glimpse for the shows of all the rest of the globe combined.
I
can't imagine all the things we'll see, but we'll be documenting with
camera and pencils, and I'll try to post some of it here, (and on
facebook and twitter.)

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

I'm delighted to be part of the inaugural Downtown Literary Festival, presented by McNally Jackson and Housing Works Bookstore. Click on the poster above for event details. I'll be telling some stories from the subway and signing copies of Missed Connections around 4pm this Sunday, April 14. Hope to see you there. Oh, and if you are one of the people who emailed asking if I might ever be in a place where they might also be, and if one of us (you) had the subway poster and the other (me) had a pen, if I might sign the said poster, then Yes! This could well be one of those times.

Monday, February 11, 2013

There's a Missed Connections Valentine's Day Party at Grand Central this year! Details above. I'm going to be there to talk a bit about the subway poster (and sign posters too) and Alan Feuer will read his very funny Missed Connections poems, and there will be refreshments suited to the occasion. And then hopefully we'll all gather our books and head out to the main concourse at 8pm for a great big spontaneous missed connection en masse. Or an en masse unmissed connection. Hope to see you there!

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

I haven't illustrated a Missed Connection in a while, but I couldn't resist the following:

Grand Central, You and MeFriday evening I was racing through the Main Concourse and you were there standing still, staring up at the stars. You had a book in your hand. You were lovely. Time stood still for a second while I fell in love, then I had to catch my train. Then I thought, Damn. Then I thought of a Plan. So here’s my ridiculously romantic plan: Meet me under the stars on Valentine’s Day. 8pm. Bring your book.

So, here’s my ridiculously romantic plan: Let’s all crash this Missed Connection. Let’s all meet under the stars on Valentine’s Day at 8pm.
Bring a book so we know it’s you.

(I'm quite serious about this. Grand Central on February 14th. Save the date! I'll be posting more details soon.)

Buy Missed Connections at Indiebound

Buy Missed Connections

Buy Missed Connections

About Me

Messages in bottles, smoke signals, letters written in the sand; the modern equivalents are the funny, sad, beautiful, hopeful, hopeless, poetic posts on Missed Connections websites. Every day hundreds of strangers reach out to other strangers on the strength of a glance, a smile or a blue hat. Their messages have the lifespan of a butterfly. I'm trying to pin a few of them down.